The BBC In Its Own Words: “We Made a Mistake”

In March 2011, the BBC’s coverage or, rather, lack of coverage of the brutal murders of the Fogel family generated outrage as well as shock and grief that an Israeli family, including a three-month old baby girl, could have been butchered in such an appalling way.

The BBC’s indifference to the murders also grabbed the attention of British politician Louise Bagshawe, now Louise Mensch who slammed the BBC in an opinion piece. Mensch eventually elicited a less than satisfactory response from the BBC’s Head of News blaming “a remarkably busy weekend” of news for the low priority given to the Itamar murders.

To her credit, Mensch has continued to use her position to hold the BBC to account by questioning the BBC’s outgoing Director-General Mark Thompson at a parliamentary hearing of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Thompson was forced to admit “very straightforwardly, we got it wrong.” The Jewish Chronicle reports on Louise Mensch’s questioning of Thompson:

“I was overwhelmed by response from the Jewish community both here and abroad. There was a feeling the BBC just didn’t care and that, if a settler had entered the home of a Palestinian family, slit the throat of their children, that the BBC would have covered that.”

Mrs Mensch had subsequently received an apology from BBC News’s Helen Boaden but wanted Mr Thompson’s reassurance about the BBC’s “even-handedness” on the Middle East conflict.

Mr Thompson said the story had come during a “very busy news period” including the fighting in Libya and the tsunami in Japan.

“News editors were under a lot of pressure,” he said. “Having said that, it was certainly an atrocity which should have been covered across our news bulletins that day.”

But he added: “I don’t believe that should be taken as systemic bias. We try very, very hard… to reflect suffering on both sides of that conflict. When there has been a humanitarian incident in Gaza, we try to show the effects of rockets in Sderot.” . . .

“But I do want to say, to all our audience including our Jewish and Israeli audiences here and around the world, we do want to make sure we are fair and impartial. We made a mistake in this instance.”

While this rare acknowledgment on the part of the BBC is welcome, Thompson’s denial of BBC bias is laughable. In those rare occasions where the BBC has mentioned the effects of Gaza rockets on Israeli civilians, they have more often than not been buried near the bottom of a story focused on Israeli air strikes on Gaza, promoting the “cycle of violence“.

great publish, very informative. I wonder why the other experts of this sector do not notice this. You should continue your writing. I’m confident, you’ve a great readers’ base already! coach factory outlet http://www.correctconstruction.com/outlet.html

Last night on the BBC World Service’s radio programme “hard talk” Zeinab Badawi, a full-time employee of the BBC and an Arab of course interviewed some representative of Hamas! His very first words were a vitriolic attack against Israel I couldn’t bear to listen any more. Hamas is actually banned by the British government as a terrorist organisation, what the BBC did may well be illegal.

Ths degree of deliberate omission and bias in reporting the news is very worrying. The situation in the Middle East is extremely finely balanced and this sort of skewing of the news could well provoke retaliatory violence. It is unprofessional, but more than that it is open to the interpretation of being deliberately provocative and biased against Israel. Sad stuff for the BBC.

Funny how right-wingers always accuse the left of being anti-Israel and turn a blind eye to antisemites in their own ranks. Large swathes of the Conservative party are anti-Israel, including the next director-general of the BBC, Chris Patten and Lord Carrington, close friend of the Saudis. Patten claims he resigned from some Palestinian “medical foundation” (collecting money for bombers) before he became a contender! And then there are the Lib Dems, such as Jenny Tonge, don’t tell me the Lib Dems are left-wing they are nothing of the sort. Antisemitism has no political ideology, it is cross-party.

Who could deny that there are those on the right- who have an anti Israeli bias-
However in general terms where are the main stream anti`s coming from- Stop picking on a small number-
Who supports Israel in say the US? mainly the Right Wing Republicans- Who has Israel been most at logger heads with? Obama and the Democrat party- the first president in recent times to give Israelis a concern over its support.
I can pic Blair and Browne as pro Israeli and Cameron as “Cold” to wards Israel . thats because he pampers to the Liberal Left Wing Democrats.
And end all- Ha`aretz and Bt Selem are two great examples in Israel itself.

The best way that I fight the lies of the BBC is to boycott membership to my local Public Radio station and their affiliated Television station. Any Public Radio station that broadcasts any BBC program, such as my local station that broadcasts BBC all bloody night long.

I urge ALL people of good conscious to do the same. If the BBC ever gets rid of its biased idiot in the Middle East, then I might reconsider it. I try to pressure my local PBS station to get the BBC to report honestly to no avail. If enough people here in the states do as I;’m doing, then they might listen to us.

It is sad that people of a rightist tendency always condemn the pro-Islamists as “left-wing”. I consider myself to be left wing, I am on the executive of the Jewish Labour Movement, I am a graduate of Young Poale Zion and I am active in the Labour Party but being a socialist has nothing to do with forgiving the Moslems every bus bomb and every discrimination against women. On the contrary, we are not blinded by the “underdog” syndrome that takes the side of the underdog at any price, however vile the underdog. For instance, I do not think that colonial rule was all bad. It ranged from the appalling treatment of the natives in the Belgian Congo to the enlightened development of Hong Kong.

You might well be- and thats fine-
However just look around you- where are the vilifying anti Israeli actions coming from-
In the UK- the Unions, Socialist Workers Party, The Left of the Student Unions, Who are the BDS- certainly not from the Right.
What about those anti-Zionist Jews- Gerald Kaufman, Finklestein, Chomsky, – need I go on.
From the pseudo humanists running Hollywood to the likes of Anthony Wedgwood Benn- all attemt to deligitimise Israel .
I am sorry Josephine- whilst I know there are many “Left Wingers, which are Jewish and pro-
At this moment in time its the left that have become the mouth piece for Islam against Israel
Ironically their ideology is so diametrically opposite

Pre 1967 the BeeB was very pro Israeli and Jewish- Like the Guardian when it was the Manchester Guardian had a very pro Jewish editorial-
Then along came the “Lefties” like Michael White who took over the politics of the Manchester Guardian- changed the name and likewise its bias-
So the BBC – Its editorial staff and journalistic figures all changed- It suddenly took on the “Pseudo Humanitarian” mantel- It favoured the “Underdog” regardless of whether the underdog was right OR wrong.

It censored words like ISLAMIC terrorism- It promoted all things left of center and decried all things right of center .
And if whatever regime

Clearly, Mr. Lemley flunked school after the nursery intake and it’s a wonder he does joined-up writing. Hence, he’ll have no knowledge whatsoever of WW2 (it actually happened, by the way Jimmy, and about 60m people perished in it, include the odd few Jews) and I’m actually aghast he’s ever heard of Operation Cast Lead. Meanwhile, while fair, balanced criticism of democratic Israel is welcome, vicious Anti-Semitic slurs that infest his sick mini-brain aren’t. And instead of inflicting your odious vomit on respectable websites like Honest Reporting, why not crawl back into your hole and log on to neo-Nazi or Islamic extremist-garbage portals, where like-minded morons will applaud your rants.

What makes the murder of JEWS by Arabs more horrible than the constant butury of Arabs by Jews? Why should the death of Jews get more press than the death of anyone else? It isn’t like Jews are in short supply! Hell: The world is full of them. All of whom think they are the center of the universe: You people just aren’t that damn important. There are more important news events in the world than the death of some Jews. NOBODY busted their ass to report the slaughter of women and childrehn murderd by the cowardly IDF. during Cast lead! But let a Jew get killed: And you clowns act like that was the last Jew!

You need a news “hook” to pin good news stories on, but one of the best of these is the Nobel Prize. I don’t think the BBC every mentioned ONCE the latest Israeli Nobel Prize winner. I am certain this is deliberate. Do you think that if an Israeli wins an Olympic medal they will mention it? Probably not.

There is so much good news for the BBC to report about Israel; Its great medical research passing the results on to the world, its help in third world countries, its help where there are National disasters, they are often first in, its great input in software research second only to Silicone Valley, its banking stability. its exquisite wines, its economy that ranks 18th in world terms, and this is just some of the achievements in a country half the size of Wales!
Perhaps others can add to this list.

Well if anything I want to hear a comment about the events by BOTH sides

Just ONE sentence is often enough; for example: Jewish citizen says “It’s a tragedy, I just wish they’d stop attacking us.” A palestinian says “We will enact Jihad as payment for this terrible/unprovoked attack!”

: ) I think we’d know who are the aggressors most of the time, by the vengeful comment, vs the compassionate comment. And EVEN IF the BBC correspondent had extracted only what it wanted to put out, the correspondent would still have to think more on the true feelings of each side.

NOTE: right now they may provide quotes but it is NOT on the overall opinion of the conflict.

Certainly the atrocities committed against Christians in northern Nigeria and in Pakistan are not greatly reported, ditto the persecution of non-Moslems in Iran. But in the parallel universe in which these “fighters against Islamophobia” live, militant feminists seem to see nothing wrong in wearing the veil, the yashmak and female genital mutilation! 95% of all Egyptian women are mutilated in this way!

If I didn’t go online daily and read news from Israel I would not have known about the Fogel murders. Even Fox News (cable) did not carry more than a scrolling blurb about this atrocity & they are much more sympathetic toward Israel than the MSM. I am outraged at the treatment of Christians and Jews that go unreported by all the liberal media we do not seem to make any headway in the war against the beast Islam. How many letters to the editor and phone calls to the MSM will it take before Americans and other western countries understand that we are indeed in a war with Islam… NO, not just radical Islam, but the entire perverted culture.

I have found a report dated Oct 2004 from the UK Jewish Chronicle- to long to be copied here- The Jest-
Trevor Asserson (A London Lawyer) prepared a report for the web site- BBC Watch- Showing that out of 19 documentaries on the M.E 15 were anti-Israeli.

I heartily agree with Mr. D’Silva, but it is not only in relation to Israel and the Middle East that the BBC is biased, it “takes a view” on all sorts of issues on which *real* journalists would be able to adopt a position of neutrality. Its reporting is biased on every issue. This is not how I was trained to report news as a journalist.

I have been listening to the BBC since the year 1960, and have seen it slide from being a news reporting organization to being sensationalist, to being left wing, to being anti-Israeli and finally anti-Jewish. Yet the bosses at the BBC still feel that its credibility hasn’t worn out. Not only has it lost its credibility, it is viewed by many of its past listeners as a propaganda machine for the left wing terrorists (or as the BBC would call them – militants). What the BBC fails to understand is that people watching their news report want facts from reporters/correspondents and not opinions from left wing anti-Israel critics posing as reporters.

Interesting to note that even top bosses at the BBC aren’t exactly ecstatic with their coverage of the misnamed Arab Spring (or Islamic Winter, as it’s proving to be).
Head of News, Helen Boaden, admits correspondents – why does the BBC have haughtily-styled ‘correspondents’, while every other TV news org has reporters? – got carried away with events (see Daily Mail online) and produced ‘over-excited’ reports.
Miss Boaden is quoted saying: ‘In the conflict in Egypt in the beginning…we might have sounded over-excited – you can take on the colour of who you’re with. I had to say ‘just be careful about your tone’.
Moreover, she told a BBC Trust report that in Libya, where staffers were ‘embedded’ with rebels, they may have failed to explore both sides of the story properly – hardly a new state of affairs from a bunch of scribblers who play a one-string fiddle.
In a report to the BBC Trust by former UN director of communications, Edward Mortimer, into coverage of the uprisings, it found that ‘excitement’ did sometimes ‘infect’ reporting, which some viewers described as ‘too emotive’ and ‘veering into opinion’
Even the saintly Jeremy Bowen didn’t escape censure, as underlined by the suggestion he should ‘travel a little less’ and have more time to provide ‘insight’ and ‘strategic guidance’ to bosses.
Better still, why not pension off ‘Al Bowen’ and replace him with someone less opinionated, who adheres strictly to the values of balanced reporting.

I love the way the BBC still thinks it has credibility and is the broadcasting network that people rely on for “the truth” and “the facts”. That hasn’t been the case since WWII, but even before that, the BBC tried to break the General Strike. The founder, Lord Reith, is held up as such as wonderful example, he was a whited sepulchre, a sexual pervert who lived with his mother and couldn’t be trusted alone in a lift with a secretary. Again for that reason, he was very much behind the BBC’s long bias against women broadcasters.

Is there any way you can implement petitions so we can sign them and get them delivered to, for example, the BBC and try to get rid of Jeremy Bowen? Please look at the NumbersUSA.com site and see if that type of thing could be used by you. Thank you.

As an Israeli citizen brought up in post war London in the 50′s to Israeli parents, I am ashamed of my British upbringing. Common sense has completely flown out the window. The Brits turn out to be a bored and drunken nation, with nothing better to do than fill their time with childish deeds such as boarding boats to “end the blockade”, and rallying against a democratic nation that has a problematic political situation on its hands, as well as crazy rouge nations declaring the holocaust is a fiction, and calling as well as striving for the annihilation of Israel.
The BBC which used to be a reliable source of information, is teaming with enthusiastic Israel haters for some odd reason.

Velvel, above, is exactly right. BBC is apologizing for getting caught, not for their persistent anti-Israel bias. They are too corrupt and dishonest and to much sham journalists to have any shame about their bias, slant, abusive pretense of journalism.

Real journalists often risk arrest and death to find and publish the truth. These cowards are not willing to risk even being thought politically incorrect.

Face the facts! Like the British hypocrites, and like the leopard, the BBC isn’t going to change it’s spots. Facts are a nuisance! Don’t, but don’t annoy the Arabs and the Muslims, or their sanctimonious supporters. What a silly but deadly situation! Britain has definitely, but as predicted, gone to the dogs.

Hey Nathan & Gilead, go easy! Just because the BBC p*** you off, dont take it out on all us Britons – the BBC p***** us off, too! I am just one of many Britons who stand up for Israel every chance we get. Like many of my friends, I have had many happy trips to Israel and only wish I could afford to go live there. Yes, putting our heads above the parapet means we frequently get shot at – but we consider it a risk worth taking to stand up for what is right. I wouldn’t dream of judging all Israelis on the ignorant behaviour of an Isaeli Post Office worker I had the misfortune to meet, so don’t judge all us Britons on the behaviour of some of our lunatics – please.

For a change the BBC’s Mark Thompson is correct when he says, ‘Israel/Palestine, I think, is particularly an example of a story where what the story looks like depends partly on what geographical lens you apply to it and the broader you get the more you understand why things happen the way they do.’
Quite clearly the ‘lens’ Jeremy Bowen (or ‘Al Bowen’, as the foreign Press corps in the Middle East refers to him for obvious reasons) applies has a rosy, Palestinian tint to it and anything he reports ought to carry a ‘bias warning’.
And how reassuring it is to learn that Lord Patten let it be known to a House of Commons select committee that he would give up his membership of a Palestinian aid organisation – in the interests of political neutrality – on assuming his appointment as chairman of the BBC Trust (a.k.a. ‘Jobs for the boys’).
If the BBC had any scruples it would an ‘I’ to its title…and be more accurately renamed the Israel-Bashing Broadcasting Corporation.

This is a pathetic “nonapology” apology by the Beeb. It sounds more like a “we are so sorry we got caught rewriting the truth and if our lack of professionalism and deceit offended you we apologize.”
Were they to fire the persons responsible for their deceitful practices there would be few folks left to collect a paycheck at the BBC.
But it should not be much of a surprise that when institutions go “native” and have more friends among the terrorists and their sponsors than among the free Israelis, Brits, or Americans, they will look for ways to embrace the nether regions of their “friends.”
It is sad that they do not remember that their “friends” will turn on them when it is expedient.

Trying to detail BBC’s pro-Arab and anti-Israeli stance (including the notorious antisemitism of its staff), seems to me a totally useless effort by Honest Reporting. Once a reputation is established, it tends to become a permanent fixture unless violently destroyed. This will eventually happen but first UK needs to clean its current act and, in the process, overcome its shameful colonial past replete of double dealings, treason and broken promises.

Edward, there is far worse. Take Harriet Sherwood in the Guardian this week. She tells her readers that over a 100 rockets have landed on southern Israel this week and then, (and here is where you need to sit down) she tells us these are the first rockets to hit Israel for over a year…despite the count for 2012 being around almost 500 (which is of course an average of about 3.5 for every day of the year so far. As she is based in Jerusalem she MUST know her statement is totally wrong, but then, she probably doesnt much care about the facts…and why hasnt HR picked up on this and demanded an accurate statement? My friends in Ashkelon would appreciate the world knowing the truth.

Systemic bias from the BBC is just a reflection of anti Israel bias in some of the higher pro Arabist echelons of the UK Establishment and Government. By all means draw attention to it but every time you do it only serves to entrench their position even further.

Ironic that the same Islamists that they idealise (maybe idolize) despise them in turn for their liberal western tendencies!!

Thank goodness for Louise Mensch. We need more like her. People who will stand up and speak out for the terrible tide of anti-Zionism/Israel/Semitism that is on the rise again. No matter how they dress it up, the BBC is biased against Israel.

Re the Balen Report: I made exactly this point to Michael Grade when he came to speak to the British-Israel Business Group. He claimed that the Balen Report was an editorial report and was not for publication! So he has become an apologist for the BBC! I wonder what his grandmother, Rose Winogradsky, would have said.

As the BBC favours the Arab populous so highly, I am surprised they didn’t issue a report on the man who beat to death his pregnant wife because she didn’t vote for the new Muslim leader. Neither mention the fact that in the past two years 13,000 rockets have been blasted into Israel.

In the World Service News, the BBC regularly demonstrates a strong anti-Israel bias. Two recent examples were its reporting of contamination of the water supply in Gaza which in the headlines it blamed on the “Israeli blockade” and maladministration but in the news item itself, a person claiming to represent the Save the Children Fund who had an Arab name and who, of course, entirely blamed the “Israeli blockade”.
The other item was when Israel retaliated for the recent rocket attacks that killed one man and injured several others. The report said that Israel retaliated and injured 17 people. It went on to say that this was in retaliation for rocket attacks from Gaza THAT HAD HARMED NO ONE!